A social media platform leverages computing resources that programmatically collect, classify, and index worldwide content, which includes, for example, user generated content, live streams of sporting events, pod casts, creative content, movies, and TV/cable shows. Content collection includes receiving over a network, text, images, sound, and video, some or all of which may be previously generated and/or captured live via a mobile device. Content classification is implemented programmatically by leveraging rule engines, heuristic engines, and/or machine learning resources. The platform indexes content based on interest.
For user consumption, the platform provides interfaces, one of which is a timeline of content presented in reverse chronological order and demarked by distinct messages. Instances of the timeline are generated for particular users or particular groups of users based on corresponding interest and social graphs. The timelines are refreshed in real-time and at global scale, for example, when new content is available and especially when an event or topic of interest is trending.